New at this
by New Neon
Summary: Being new at something isn't the same as being bad at it and if Sanji is going to make a challenge then Zoro won't back down.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a commission fic for Cloe (russianmafiadon on tumblr) and I hope you all like it. My commission details are on my tumblr if anyone else is interested.

"Hey, marimo." Sanji says, walking up to Zoro. Zoro swallows another mouthful of rum and watches Sanji carefully, his body language doesn't say fight or argument so Zoro isn't going to complain too much. He can't help but wonder what the cook wants though.

"Yeah?" He asks curiously.

Sanji flicks his cigarette into the sand and breathes out a last breath of smoke. He tilts his head back as if to look at the night sky, only his eyes are closed. What the hell does the cook want?

"Hey, give me some of that." Sanji says, sitting down next to Zoro on the large rock that Zoro had taken for himself. The crew's beach party is progressing nicely, Luffy and Usopp are dancing merrily by the fire, temporarily appeased by Sanji's cooking. Nami and Robin are talking happily with Franky involved as well for a change. The whole crew are happily doing their thing and while Zoro often gets involved he does like spending time just watching the people that he cares about being happy. He usually does it alone and with his own bottle of liquor, but now it seems that he's not getting either.

"Get your own." He tells the cook. Sanji scowls at him.

"Just give it." Sanji insists, reaching for it, but Zoro jerks it out of the way.

"Fine." Sanji says and clucks his tongue disapprovingly, "You'll just have to taste smoke instead."

Zoro is just about to open his mouth to ask Sanji what the hell he means when suddenly his mouth is occupied with Sanji's. The blonde just leant across the space between them and pressed their mouths together. Sanji is... kissing him? Zoro's free hand had reached for his swords as a reflex, thinking that Sanji was going to attack him somehow, but the only way that Sanji is doing that is with his mouth.

His hand drops from his swords at the same time that Sanji reaches out and touches the sides of Zoro's face, guiding him where Sanji wants him. Sanji kisses him a little more forcefully and Zoro hears this startled noise that must have come from him when Sanji pulls back a bit to bite his lip lightly. Sanji presses another quick kiss to his mouth before pulling back.

Sanji kissed him.

Sanji is looking at him with slightly rosy cheeks, seeming to look at him for... something. Zoro doesn't know what though, his brain is stuck.

Sanji... kissed him?

"Hn, no fight from the great swordsman then?" Sanji challenges, sliding off of the rock and then leaning back into Zoro's space, his hands on either side of Zoro's legs. Sanji kisses Zoro again, light and maybe slightly hesitant. Sanji pulls back and looks at Zoro, again seeming to look for something.

"Hm, never known you to be passive about anything. Figured you'd either like this, hate it or tell me you didn't give a shit, not just sit there like that." Sanji remarks.

Sanji kissed him. What? Why?

"God, you're as dumb as the rock you're sitting on. I may as well kiss that, I'd get the same reaction." Sanji says, sounding exasperated. He takes the booze from Zoro's stunned grip and walks off with it, taking a deep swig from it, leaving Zoro boozeless and clueless.

What the fuck was that all about?


	2. Chapter 2

Zoro sits on the upper deck, watching the cook walking around below as he hands out drinks to Nami and Robin. That certainly _looks_ like Sanji.

"Hey, Sanji made less fancy drinks for the rest of us, I figured I'd get yours before Luffy did." Usopp's voice says from behind Zoro.

"Thanks." Zoro says distractedly and squints at Sanji, watching the way he walks for any change indicating that the man is anything other than himself.

"Any reason that we're staring at Sanji?" Usopp questions, settling down next to Zoro and handing the drink over. Zoro sniffs it warily in case this is what turned Sanji strange, but Usopp is already drinking it and Usopp doesn't seem to be affected by any sudden urge to kiss him.

"He's been acting weird." Zoro answers and drinks, his gaze turning back to Sanji who is fluttering at the ladies. That's normal at least.

"He is weird, so are you. What did he do that's weirder than usual?" Usopp asks.

"He kissed me." Zoro answers.

Usopp's drink sprays all along the railing and the sharpshooter proceeds to choke loudly. Zoro watches with mild concern.

"He WHAT?!" Usopp rasps, looking up at Zoro with wide eyes.

"He kissed me." Zoro repeats.

"I- what? That doesn't make sense! This is Sanji we're talking about!" Usopp says in disbelief, sitting up and staring down at Sanji.

"I know. That's why I'm watching him to see if he's doing anything else strange." He answers and stares at the cook some more.

"Maybe he's a robot." Usopp says after a moment.

"Why would anyone make a robot Sanji? And if they did, where's the real one? And why would someone build a robot Sanji who would be normal except for deciding to kiss me? That's a stupid idea." Zoro snorts and stares at Sanji some more. He can see the shift of muscle in the cook's legs as he shifts his balance. That's definitely human and not robot muscles under those tight black trousers for sure.

"Good point. Maybe he's a plant person." The sharpshooter suggests.

"What?" he sighs, looking over at the liar.

"A plant person. Spores from a plant go out from the plant and are breathed in by some unsuspecting soul and that person is converted into a humanoid plant! Why, back in my hometown I-" Usopp begins, puffing up his chest with the effort of an incoming boast and tall tale.

"No you didn't." Zoro counters before Usopp even starts. The younger man seems to deflate and pouts a little for a moment.

"Okay, fine. But I've heard rumours. They go around looking just like who they used to be and infect new people." Usopp says with less enthusiasm.

"So why would he kiss me?" he asks, unconvinced by Usopp's story.

"To infect you of course! Quick, tell me, did he put his tongue in your mouth?!" Usopp demands, grabbing Zoro by the front of his shirt and shaking him.

"No…" Zoro says slowly.

"Then you're probably safe." Usopp sighs with relief and slurps the last of his drink down.

"You're probably thinking that there's no proof for this theory." Usopp begins sagely.

"Yeah." Zoro says flatly. The whole theory is kind of stupid, though it explains more than the idea that Sanji is himself.

"So we get proof! Chopper won't listen to something medical like that without proof, so we get it. Plant people wouldn't have blood right? They'd have sap." Usopp tells him.

Zoro frowns and looks down at Sanji as he returns to the galley. The whole idea is stupid, but they've seen stranger things on the Grand Line. If Sanji was taken over by some plant then he would try to kiss Zoro to spread the infection on, that part makes sense. Maybe if they can test it now and if he does turn out to be a plant man then it'll be early enough for Chopper to reverse it.

"So we just have to see if he bleeds the right blood." Zoro says thoughtfully.

"Yes! As long as by 'we' you mean 'you'." Usopp agrees warily.

Zoro rolls his eyes but motions for Usopp to follow. The two of them sneak down to the outside of the galley and peer inside. Sanji is at the sink. The two of them duck down as Zoro removes one sword and silently opens one of the windows. He waits until he hears Sanji get close. He peers through the window and sees Sanji facing sidelong to them, looking at something in a cupboard. He pulls his sword up to the window, reaches in with it and quickly jabs Sanji with it then yanks the blade back.

"OW! WHAT THE FUCK?!" Sanji yells from inside. Zoro slams the window shut and looks down at his sword.

"That's blood alright." Zoro remarks.

"Which means that's actually Sanji and not a plant. So you just stabbed Sanji." Usopp says with a voice that goes from thoughtful to terrified the more that he speaks. Sanji skids around the corner, one hand on his upper arm with a small amount of blood seeping from between his fingers. He glares at Zoro, still standing there with the blood tipped sword, and at Usopp who has one of those naturally guilty faces.

"Before I kill you both and dump you in the ocean," Sanji says in a low snarl, "tell me what shitty thought possessed your minds to make you think that was a good thing to do."

"We were trying to see if you were human. You were acting weird, so Usopp thought that you might have been a plant person or something." Zoro answers simply as he flicks the blood off of his sword and re-sheathes it. Now he's back to having no answers or theories.

"I- WHAT?!" Sanji demands, apparently more confused than angry, though the two emotions are clearly warring for dominance in the cook.

"I- hey! Zoro! Don't get me in trouble too! We just- he said that you were acting weird is all so I was trying to help pleasedon'tkillme!" Usopp wails, the last bit merging into one terrified squeal.

"Weird how?" Sanji demands tapping the toe of his shoe on the floor as if to settle his shoe right. Apparently anger is winning out over confusion.

"You kissed me." Zoro answers.

Sanji's eye twitches.

Zoro manages to block the kick but he can do nothing to stop the force that hurls him backwards into Usopp and both of them overboard. Zoro surfaces in the water and shakes his wrists, the force of kicks like that always hurt.

"WAS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR A LITTLE FUCKING DISCRETION ZORO?!" Sanji screeches at him from the side of the ship and then stomps away.

Zoro frowns. That gave him absolutely no answers.

He grabs the whining Usopp by the back of his overalls and swims back to the ship.


	3. Chapter 3

It starts innocently enough, he's remembering the kiss again for about the millionth time, only this time he's not examining it to try to work out what the cook was thinking or if there was anything that he had missed, if the cook's expression afterwards betrayed any sense of it being a joke. No, he's gone over that a hundred times before. This time it just pops into his head of its own accord. He can almost feel the cook's lips against his and between that and the flare of excitement at the memory and the potential idea that he could do it _again_ drives the number of push-ups that he was on entirely out of his head.

Zoro shakes the idea free and scowls at the ground, was it four hundred and fifty or five hundred and forty? It was… damnit… no, he can remember this, he just has to focus. The cook's lips had just been so warm though and- goddamnit. Zoro drops onto his front and smacks his head on the floor repeatedly. Stupid cook.

It only gets worse after that.

Ideas of Sanji come flickering into his head at the most irritating times. Sometimes it's when he's trying to focus, more often it's when he's looking at Sanji but this latest development is the most troubling. Zoro jerks off of course, it's good for a person's health to do it every so often and it's a decent stress reliever but nothing more than that. He's simply letting off a little steam like that when, entirely uninvited, an image of Sanji appears in his mind. He feels Sanji's body against his back and Sanji's hands on him rather than Zoro's own. Between that vivid phantom touch and the imagined sensation of Sanji's lips on his neck Zoro discovers that it's entirely possible for him to surprise himself into orgasm.

It's all Sanji's goddamn fault.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite what _certain_ people on the Sunny might say, Zoro is not an idiot. He's willing to admit when something strange is happening, after all he was willing to test the theory of Sanji being a plant. Zoro has never, ever, ever in his life been sexually attracted to people. Ever. Sure he can tell if people look better or worse than usual, he still has eyes. That doesn't mean that he's attracted to them though.

In all honesty the idea of being sexually attracted to people confuses him a little. He doesn't entirely get how anyone can look at a total stranger and want them like that without knowing a damn thing about them! He can't see how having dinner with them once or twice makes that more sensible either.

It's not to say that he's against relationships or sexual attraction or even having sex with someone, hell sometimes he wants to. He never has though, it's akin to the feeling of opening the fridge because he's hungry but not seeing anything in there that he's really hungry _for_. Apparently now he has found something and that something is Sanji.

So, fine. He wants Sanji. He can work with that.

The question is what should he do about it? Sanji made it a competition so Zoro is more than happy to accept that challenge.

He barges into the kitchen and kicks the door shut behind him. He hears Sanji sigh but evidently the cook has given up on protesting about the treatment of his door, besides Franky is the one to get on their backs for that usually.

"Dinner is in half an hour, no booze or food 'til then. You can wait." Sanji tells him without turning around to look at him. Zoro grits his teeth and stomps over to him.

Closer up he can see Sanji's face, rather than just the back of his head. He's always known that Sanji doesn't look like the men on magazines or on the covers of romance books. No, Sanji is a little rougher around the edges, his eyes aren't large and sparkling, instead his eyes are thoughtful or in the present case, pissed off. Zoro stares at him a little more. Sanji isn't _pretty_ but he is attractive and looking at him does make Zoro's heart rate pick up. So he really is attracted to him then.

"Did your mossy little brain fall out of your ear or something? Why are you just standing there-MMPH!" Zoro cuts Sanji's dumb question and insult off with a kiss. He has his fists clenched in the front of Sanji's shirt to keep him right where he wants him. He finally lets Sanji go, or at least pushes him back as he still keeps Sanji's shirt clenched in his hands.

"How's that for fight?" He says with a grin.

Sanji looks at him and blinks slowly in what appears to be utter bewilderment until comprehension dawns on his face.

"That was two weeks ago!" Sanji points out.

"And… kind of terrible actually." He adds, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth.

"Oh." Zoro can hear the way his voice goes all small at that and he hates himself for it. Fuck. Well fuck this and Sanji too! The cook started it!

"It's not like I care!" Zoro shouts at him and turns around to storm off.

"Wait!" Sanji calls after a moment and takes a few quick steps towards him, catching him by the elbow.

"That was pretty bad but… they say that practice makes perfect, right?" Sanji says and when Zoro turns to glare at him suspiciously he sees the other man looking hopeful. Apparently Zoro not punching his face in or trying to cut him apart is all the encouragement that Sanji needs to move himself in front of Zoro and lean in to kiss him again.

It's not that he's worried about being bad at it or anything, but if Sanji is better then it's best to just pay attention and learn, that's how he's always dealt with Sanji's fighting techniques. Sanji's kiss is gentle and he both moves to where Zoro is going to be before he's there but also leads Zoro to just where Sanji wants him. Zoro would probably be better at studying this if he wasn't entirely lost in the sensation of Sanji's lips against his own.

When Sanji stops it takes a second or two for Zoro's brain to come back on.

"Much better, huh?" Sanji says, he's probably shooting for smug but the look in his eyes is too warmly happy for him to pull it off.

"Third time's the charm I guess." Zoro nods absently and touches his lips. That was an amazing kiss.

"Hey, there wasn't anything wrong with the first kiss I gave you, it was just your kiss that sucked." Sanji points out.

"Whatever, you can't be perfect at something when it's just your second time doing it you know." Zoro reasons. Still, it was pretty good.

When he looks back at Sanji he sees that the other man is staring at him in disbelief.

"I STOLE YOUR FIRST KISS?!" He demands loudly, throwing his hands in the air.

"Yeah, I stole one back though, so we're even." Zoro shrugs. Sanji's mouth is hanging open in disbelief and Zoro doesn't plan on sticking around for what looks to be a grade three meltdown, part of a system the rest of the crew developed long ago.

He walks off and shuts the door behind him.

"YOU WHAT?! THAT DOESN'T- HEY! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" Sanji yells from the other side of the door. Hm, maybe a grade four then. Zoro makes himself scarce until dinner, Sanji will probably be back down to usual levels of hostility by then and Zoro might get to kiss him afterwards too!


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey… Usopp." Zoro says thoughtfully, finally finishing his last sit up for his set. It's a recovery day so he's taking it lighter than usual and only doing five hundred.

"Yeah?" Usopp replies, pausing in tightening the strings on his kabuto to look at him.

"How do I know if Sanji's flirting with me? He doesn't do the noodle and nosebleed thing like he does with Nami and Robin when he's talking to me." He asks. He has worked out that either Sanji isn't flirting with him, which would be odd considering as this is Sanji, or he is and Zoro's simply not noticing.

"You just have to ask yourself three questions, Zoro, it's easy. I shall teach you!" Usopp says dramatically, striking a pose as he does so. Zoro rolls his eyes.

"Question one!" Usopp declares, holding one finger up.

"Is Sanji looking at you?" Usopp says. Okay, that seems obvious but sure, he'll go with it.

"Question two! Is his mouth moving?" Usopp says and Zoro starts to suspect that Usopp is deliberately annoying him now.

"Question three! Is sound coming out in the form of words? If all three are true then Sanji is probably flirting with you." Usopp says brightly. Zoro kicks him.

"That's not helpful! I'm being serious here!" He argues.

"Me too. Look, here he comes." Usopp says, waving his tiny wrench for his kabuto strings in the direction behind Zoro.

Zoro tilts his head back and sees Sanji approaching. The blond looks him over, probably disapproving of him working out so close to the kitchen or something. The blond sighs and looks at Usopp instead.

"Dinner is in two hours, do you want apple juice or pear because I am not making one only for you to bitch about not having the other." Sanji says tersely.

"Uh, apple is fine, please." Usopp squeaks out, cringing away from Sanji in terror. He's evidently still spooked about his unwanted trip into the sea before courtesy of Sanji's kick.

"Good." Sanji answers with a nod.

"Zoro… maybe you could come into the kitchen and help. I'm sure I can find something for you to do." Sanji smiles.

"Fuck off, cook. I'm not doing your job for you." Zoro snorts. Sanji will only complain that he's done it wrong anyway.

Sanji opens his mouth to say something but then just makes a frustrated sound and stomps off. Usopp sighs and runs his hand over his face.

"See that? That was him flirting with you." Usopp says despairingly.

"What? No he wasn't." Zoro snorts in disbelief.

"Yes, he was. Go ask him if you don't believe me. But I'm telling you Zoro, three questions, use them!" Usopp insists.

"Fine, I will ask him!" Zoro says sharply, getting to his feet and heading into the galley and Sanji's kitchen, thoroughly into the blond's territory. Sanji looks up at him as he comes in and narrows his eyes in a way that Zoro has learnt to mean that Sanji is still deciding on whether he's going to kick someone or not.

"Were you flirting with me?" He asks warily.

Sanji sighs deeply and rolls his eyes. Zoro is all ready to go outside and yell 'HAH! YOU WERE WRONG!' at Usopp until the blond nods at him.

"Yes, genius, I was." Sanji sighs at him.

"Oh. Really?" Zoro asks in confusion, coming closer to Sanji.

"Yes, really. How much more obvious do you want me to be?" Sanji grumbles at him.

"More obvious than that." Zoro answers easily, he thought that was pretty clear.

The cook sighs again, he's making a habit of that, and pulls Zoro closer to him by the belt that his swords hang off of.

"Fine, if we're being really clear and taking all of the magic and romance out of it, I'm going to kiss you and put my hands under your shirt so I can feel you up if that's okay with you." Sanji says in a slightly tart tone of voice, like he's being really clever and making a point.

"That is definitely okay with me." Zoro agrees.

"No! Not okay! Unsubtle and unromantic!" Sanji argues.

"Oh, so you don't want to. Okay, that's fine, I'll go." Zoro says with an easy shrug but Sanji's hands stay firm on his belt.

"I didn't say that." Sanji mutters and Zoro grins, it looks like this is going to prove to be a whole new area where the two of them can compete and argue with each other. He likes that, so he leans in and kisses Sanji.

He tries really hard to remember how Sanji did it when it felt amazing, he attempts to recall the angle of Sanji's head at the time and what technique he used and-

"Stop thinking so hard about it." Sanji says against Zoro's lips and kisses him again.

It's hard to focus on not focusing, but when he figures that it is akin to meditation and just being here right now then it becomes easier. He doesn't let Sanji lead completely but it's hard not to, he guesses that the other man's experience gives him more confidence with this kind of thing.

Just as Sanji had announced his hands slide under Zoro's shirt and run along his bare skin with a lazy kind of curiosity. It makes Zoro's heart race and his breath catch in a way that is completely illogical, it's just his stomach and his sides and they shouldn't feel so sensitive to every stroke of the cook's delicate and treasured fingers. And yet, despite all reason they do make him feel like that.

He tips his head back and tries to get his breathing under control, he can't keep his cool if he's kissing Sanji and if Sanji's hands are wandering all over his skin. But Sanji clearly doesn't care about Zoro's cool because he kisses Zoro's neck in a way that forces Zoro to remember his entirely accidental fantasy from before.

"I can't believe that you've never done this before." Sanji says against Zoro's skin. Zoro twists away and looks at the cook.

"You think I'm lying?" He challenges.

"No, it's not that. It's just that it seems hard to believe that it's not come up before. You're pretty good looking you know. Aside from the terrible dress sense and the fact that you only bathe once a week, and your horrible manners and tendency to insult people." Sanji starts to list off and Zoro can see that it looks like Sanji could go all day like that.

"If this is how you treat people you're attracted to then no wonder everyone turns your dumb ass down." Zoro says flatly.

"Well you haven't turned me down, so that must make you an idiot then, huh?" Sanji says smugly.

"You just insulted both of us." Zoro groans.

"I don't hear you complaining." Sanji shrugs and kisses Zoro's jaw.

"I _was_ comp-" Zoro is cut off when Sanji kisses him again and it's good enough that he doesn't care so much about winning that argument.

Zoro loses a stretch of time when all he's really aware of is Sanji's hands and lips on him, his attention zeroes in even further when he finds out that Sanji has no intentions of stopping Zoro from getting his hands under Sanji's shirt.

He's felt Sanji's body before of course, hundreds of times. It's not possible to fight that much with someone and not feel their body. Similarly they've been together in combat cooperatively more than a few times and he needs to know Sanji's body for that. He realises though that those are entirely different circumstances to this. When he smooths his hands over the flat planes of compact muscle on Sanji's body he's able to just appreciate them for their deadly beauty and enjoy the way that his touch makes Sanji smile and sigh happily.

Sanji is skinny of course, he's more slender than Zoro is and he hides his form under suits a lot of the time. For the most part his clothes just emphasise how small he is, especially in comparison to Zoro himself or to Franky. People assuming that the cook's build implies fragility or weakness are in for one hell of a surprise. Under smooth skin and relatively little body fat there are steel strong muscles. Sanji's power can be compared to Zoro's swords. The blades of all of Zoro's swords are thin and sharp, at the right angle they're barely there. Assuming that their thinness is a weakness in comparison to the cutting power of, say, a thick and heavy axe is idiocy. Sanji is sharp and precise like a blade. Zoro has always appreciated that, but now with this newfound attraction and the inclination and ability to get his hands on that body well... he's appreciating it in a whole new way.

"So... I like you." Sanji says, still too close for Zoro to really look at him so he supposes that Sanji is speaking to Zoro's chest as that's where he's looking.

"I mean, I hate you, because you're annoying and rude and I want to kick your face in. But I also like you." Sanji clarifies, frowning and pulling back a little.

"What are you talking about, shit cook?" Zoro asks and Sanji shakes his head, seemingly to rid himself of the idea.

"I meant, would you date me?" Sanji asks, looking at him.

Zoro considers this for a moment or two and apparently his silence unnerves Sanji. He's not really sure what it means to date someone. He's seen what Sanji's version of romance looks like but that's noodling around and giving gifts like flowers or cakes. Sanji hasn't done any of that with him and Zoro isn't sure if that's because of how Sanji is with men or if that's just because Sanji knows that Zoro would hate that and probably try to cut him in half with his swords.

Sanji is looking both worried and angry now.

"What does that mean?" Zoro asks instead and Sanji's expression eases.

"Well, I'm sure as shit not gonna stop fighting you. You'd need to stop being such an irritating bastard for that to happen and I can't see that being the case. Even if you were I'd probably still fight you anyway. I'm not going to stop treating the ladies like the princesses that they are either but I can tell you that's all it would be, I wouldn't try to be with them and you." Sanji tells him and Zoro nods, he hadn't considered Sanji's flirting. It's always annoyed him but it'd probably piss him off more if they were meant to be... dating. But, Sanji has given his word and that's all that Zoro needs.

"Okay, that sounds good but I still don't really know what you mean, or what you expect me to do. I've never dated anyone before." Zoro tells the cook and Sanji looks at him with something close to surprise.

"I'm trying to work out why." Sanji says softly, his head tilted thoughtfully as if he's sizing Zoro up.

"I doubt it's because you were unable to charm someone into being with you. I mean, I'm here after all. But if it's some training thing or you deciding that you didn't have time for things like this then why would you change your mind now? Not that I'm not happy about it of course bu- aah!" Sanji's ramble is cut off when Zoro's hand ghosts over Sanji's side and he jumps.

He pauses, looks at his hand and then at Sanji. Is he...?

"Don't you daaaaaahahahahaaa! STOP THAT!" Sanji shouts, repressing his laugh finally and digging his knee into Zoro's thigh in threat. Zoro stops tickling Sanji's side and just places his hand flat over it and moves on to his hip. Sanji squints at him suspiciously but removes his knee from Zoro's leg apparently convinced that Zoro won't exploit his newfound knowledge of Sanji's ticklishness.

"So, why then?" Sanji asks, resuming his previous topic.

"Wasn't interested in anyone before you." Zoro answers with a shrug.

"You're bad at flirting, I was looking for an actual answer." Sanji replies.

"I wasn't flirting. I just wasn't interested in anyone until you and I had to think about it after you kissed me before I realised I was." Zoro says simply.

"What do you mean you weren't interested in anyone before? Do you mean that you weren't interested in dating because of training or, travelling or what?" Sanji asks sceptically.

"I meant what I said. I wasn't interested in anyone else before." Zoro answers, getting a little annoyed at having to repeat himself.

Sanji stares at him with incredulity written all over his face, his mouth is slightly open as if he's about to come up with some kind of smartassed answer but hasn't yet decided on one.

"Bullshit. I'm good looking but I'm not that good looking." Sanji says after a moment.

"No argument here." Zoro smirks.

"Bite me, you shitty marimo." Sanji snaps, kicking him in the ankle with what for Sanji is a light kick and what for most men would be an attempt to kick someone hard enough to break bones.

"I'm serious, Zoro. You can't seriously mean that I'm the only person you've ever wanted to date... and how can I have been your first kiss?" Sanji asks him, his tiny brain clearly not having got around the concept.

"It just didn't appeal before. I don't think of people like that, I'm just not interested." Zoro answers and is starting to get the feeling that this conversation is going to go around and around a few times before the curly idiot gets on board with it.

"Until me." the cook says flatly.

"I guess. I know you at least so it's not that weird and even though I want to dismember you a lot you're okay so... yeah, apparently you're the first one that I'm into." Zoro tells him. Sanji is still making that face, the one that has complete confusion and scepticism written all over it.

"Believe me or don't believe me cook, it's up to you, but I'm not a liar and I'm not interested in people who think I am." Zoro groans and moves past the still brainless cook and heads towards the door.

"Just ME?!" The cook calls again in utter disbelief. Zoro flips him off and leaves.

That went... well? Or badly. He's not sure. On the one hand he got to kiss Sanji and touch him and got the same in return and apparently they're dating now, but on the other hand he had to have that stupid conversation and deal with the cook looking at him like he would make up shit like that.

Maybe he can just say that it went okay.


	6. Chapter 6

Sanji seems to get over the idea that he's the first person that Zoro has been attracted to without also blowing up because his ego got bigger than his skull. In all honesty he finds a lot of this irritating. He finds it hard to tell if Sanji is flirting with him, he's had a lifetime of either ignoring people's flirting or being oblivious to it and now that he suddenly wants to know he just doesn't have the experience to tell. He doesn't want to assume and get it wrong and rather irritatingly his best rule for telling if Sanji is flirting with him seems to be Usopp's three rules. Though Zoro has modified them slightly to the following:

1) is Sanji looking at him?

2) is his mouth moving and is sound coming out?

3) is it words?

4) is Sanji looking more and more annoyed even if Zoro gives him a reasonable answer?

If all of those four are met then Sanji is probably flirting with him.

"Oi, Zoro. Do you want to take my watch this evening?" Sanji asks him. Zoro frowns, that's one, two and three all met there. It could be that Sanji wants to get him alone, in fact that seems likely, but he's asking him if he wants to take his watch, not share it.

Zoro glances around and notes that there are a few of the rest of the crew around, Franky is fishing with Chopper by his side, easily within earshot of the mast where he's resting against and was having a nap until just now.

"Why, have you got something better to do than keep watch?" He asks suspiciously.

"Hopefully." Sanji answers through gritted teeth. Okay, that's all four points met.

"Okay, I'll take your watch then." He tells Sanji who looks pleased at the result.

Either he just arranged to meet Sanji or he just got conned into doing a shift on watch that he wasn't supposed to.

"You're so oblivious." Sanji says before Zoro is even fully into the crow's nest that night.

"Like I told you, idiot, this whole thing is new to me." Zoro groans and heaves himself inside the room with little to no effort.

"I should have seen this coming really." Sanji sighs in a long suffering manner.

"What, me being new to this?" Zoro asks in confusion and kicks the door shut behind him.

"No, you being oblivious. You are with everything else, I shouldn't have been shocked about it." The blond answers smugly.

"I guess that makes you an idiot then if it's so obvious." Zoro shoots back and from the irritated look on Sanji's face he's pretty sure that he won that exchange.

Still, the cook is apparently not annoyed enough to stop him from scooting closer to Zoro and keeping close to each other throughout the whole period of their watch. Even when they're keeping watch on different sections of the sea in case other ships or obstacles appear in their way they are still facing each other and occasionally talking. He knows that Sanji isn't irritated because of the way that he has one leg swung over Zoro's lap almost possessively, even though there is no one else here who might lay claim to him otherwise.

When he looks at Sanji in the dim light of night and slowly takes in the sight of him he starts to notice things. He sees the way Sanji's mouth tilts slightly off centre when he smiles, the way he rolls his lighter from finger to finger and the pitch of his genuinely amused laughter, when he looks at all of that a warmth runs through his chest. He likes this, he really, really does.


	7. Chapter 7

"Aren't you jealous?" Franky asks curiously and Zoro looks up to see Robin and Nami watching with interest. It occurs to him that they're talking about Sanji. His gaze tracks over to the idiot cook who is currently flailing around like a noodle and fawning over the attentions of a barmaid, Zoro thinks that he can even see Sanji's nose dripping a little bit of blood. Idiot.

This isn't the first time that this has happened. In the many months that they've been together Sanji has often flirted with women like this, but like he promised in the beginning it's never more than that. In all honesty all Zoro ever needed on that was Sanji's word.

"No." He answers with a shrug. Anyway, surely Nami and Robin ought to know that, he's never jealous when Sanji acts like that with them.

"But you're together." Nami points out with a frown, as if she thinks Sanji is being unfaithful to her personally. The idea makes Zoro smirk in amusement.

"Yeah, that's why I'm not jealous." He reasons.

"But he's flirting with those girls!" Nami points out, waving her hand in Sanji's direction and sure enough Sanji is now flirting with two women at once. He always was good at multi-tasking.

"It's just flirting, it's not going anywhere and he knows it. It's just- look." Zoro sighs and gets up.

He crosses the space across the bar to where the cook is flirting, coming up behind him so Sanji can't see him. He makes enough noise with his swords and his boots that Sanji will know it's him and he won't get his shin shattered from a startled Sanji. Sanji starts to glance around at him, but before he can get close Zoro leans in and presses a kiss to the space between Sanji's neck and his jaw, a place that experience has taught him makes the cook weak in the knees.

"Hi, cook." He says quietly and Sanji makes this choked kind of sound and goes pink all over. The girls giggle and leave him, but Sanji doesn't notice, he turned his back on them to look at Zoro. He didn't even see the girls leave.

"What was that for? You're not usually so public." Sanji asks, his eyes wide and hopeful.

"Felt like it." Zoro answers with a shrug and heads back to their table with Sanji eagerly following him.

Nami is giving them a confused look but Robin and Franky look incredibly amused. They get it, even if Nami doesn't. It doesn't matter how much Sanji flirts with girls, he doesn't mean it and the bottom line of it is that Sanji is his unless Sanji tells him otherwise. Catching the cook like that and distracting him is half of the fun of it, it's just a whole new way to fluster the other man and there are few things Zoro enjoys more than getting under Sanji's skin.

He doesn't need words for what he has with Sanji, Sanji can't be captured in just one word so why should anything that he has with him be? He knows all he needs to, being with Sanji makes him happy and it makes Sanji happy too. He supposes that it's obvious to at least several of the crew from the way that they look at the two of them and the way that Nami and Franky were trying to protect their relationship. But it's fine, they're better than fine.

"I'm gonna head back to the ship. Later." He says, waving to the others and walking off. He doesn't even need to look around to know that Sanji is following him. After kissing him a little just then Zoro entirely intends to do it some more and Sanji is clearly hoping for it too.


	8. Chapter 8

"We're going out." Sanji declares as Zoro gets out of the bathroom, still all warm and relaxed from his bath and with his towel around his waist.

"You mean dating? Because I already knew that." Zoro says with a frown.

"No! I meant we're going out to dinner, I've left food for everyone else, well, those who aren't going out somewhere on their own. You and I are going out to dinner together. Come on." Sanji tells him and turns around and walks back towards the men's bunkroom as if he expects Zoro to follow like an obedient little dog. Zoro is tempted to not follow him just out of spite, but he does need to get dressed into something so he reluctantly follows afterwards.

When he gets into the room he finds that Sanji is picking shoes out of Zoro's locker of clothes and clearly he was going through them while Zoro was in the bath because his one solitary suit is laid out as well.

"Are you going to put them on me too or am I allowed to dress myself?" Zoro asks mockingly and Sanji smacks him with a tie.

"Don't be a smartass. We're going somewhere nice so wear this. I'm going to go finish up everyone else's food." Sanji says and disappears in a whirl of his own open suit jacket.

Zoro flips him off as Sanji leaves the room but he's not going to stand there naked out of spite, partially because him hanging around their beds naked isn't something that's going to upset Sanji all that much. He dresses in what Sanji asked him to, except for the fact that he switches the shirt to the one other kind of suit shirt in his locker. He's only got the two shirts and if the only bit of resistance that he can put against Sanji's ordering him around is to wear the 'wrong' shirt then that's what he'll do.

He sets the blue shirt that Sanji laid out for him aside and instead puts on his white one, that'll show him.

Unlike some people it doesn't take him a million years to get ready. So it's barely any time at all until he's up on deck waiting for the cook who is fussing around with the last of his food related activities. When Sanji finally comes out he looks Zoro up and down before smiling slyly.

"Like the shirt?" Zoro asks with a mean smile because there is no way that he's going back in to change it again.

"It's perfect, just the one that I wanted you to wear." Sanji says with a smile and pauses to light up a cigarette and breathes in as he does so, sucking the first breath of smoke in.

"No it wasn't, you put the blue one out but I wore this one instead." Zoro retorts.

"I knew you'd do that, so I switched them. Come on." Sanji smirks and blows smoke in a stream behind him as he walks off of the ship. Zoro pauses and squints at Sanji as he walks away.

"You're just saying that to cover your ass!" He accuses, following after Sanji.

"Whatever you have to tell yourself so that you can sleep at night Zoro." Sanji says with a condescendingly airy tone. Zoro considers the merits and demerits of kicking Sanji off of the gangplank. He decides against it but only because of how much Sanji would bitch about it, and then Zoro would get dirty in the fight and then that would somehow be his fault too. Zoro opts for the easier choice and just scowls at Sanji's back.

Zoro figured from the fact that he was made to dress up that they were going somewhere nice, Sanji dresses nice at the slightest occasion but for him to make Zoro dress nice suggests something big. Sure enough Sanji leads him to an incredibly fancy restaurant for reasons that elude Zoro. Zoro can't help but notice that Sanji has this determined single-minded focused look on his face and isn't really talking. They sit down and Zoro can see the waiters looking down their noses at him, he's pretty sure that to them his swords, hair and earrings all scream pirate. It just shows what they know, he had all of these things when he wasn't a pirate.

"Why are we here?" Zoro asks Sanji.

"To have a nice meal together, just the two of us." Sanji answers with his well-worn in 'are you stupid?' expression.

"Yeah, but if you wanted to do that we could have stayed on the Sunny and sent everyone away. It would be better than this and these guys aren't nearly as good at sneering at me as you are." Zoro snorts, looking at one of the waiters and then back at Sanji who is wearing a stunned expression and rapidly going red.

"Shut up and… and just enjoy it." Sanji mutters, looking off to the side and reminding Zoro of an embarrassed Chopper. Did he somehow compliment the chef in some way?

"Hey, don't look like I'm flattering you. I'm just pointing out the truth." Zoro reasons and Sanji goes a deeper shade of red. Zoro wonders how much redder he can go before he faints from all the blood being in his skin and not in his brain.

As their food is delivered to them the cook looks nervous. Out of both truth and an attempt to turn him redder Zoro tells Sanji that his food is better and, because Zoro is a good multi tasker, he says it within earshot of one of the snooty waiters who looks offended at the comment.

"Are you sick or something?" Zoro asks eventually and drinks his wine. He normally dislikes wine but Sanji picked out the only decent one on the menu for him and then ordered the food that apparently 'went with the wine' or something.

"No, why would you say that?" Sanji asks but he's twitchy enough that he looks uneasy just saying that.

"Because you look as nervous as Usopp when he's broken something and Franky hasn't found out yet." Zoro points out and that at least makes Sanji laugh.

"Well, it's just that…" Sanji starts off uncertainly but stops himself and then scowls at Zoro.

"What?" Zoro asks curiously.

"Don't lick your knife!" Sanji hisses and kicks Zoro in the shin under the table, his attack hidden by the fancy tablecloth.

"What? I was enjoying the last of the food." Zoro protests and waves the knife at Sanji. Sanji's expression takes another step towards murderous but is still within the range where Zoro is unlikely to get a foot to the face. He's become an expert at balancing Sanji's rage for his own amusement, it's a fine art.

"You don't lick your knife in a fancy restaurant." Sanji tells him in quiet anger.

"So you want me to waste the last of this food then?" Zoro challenges, holding out the food covered knife. Sanji's face does this complicated twitch as the conflicting ideas of 'don't lick your knife' and 'don't waste food' vie for dominance. Zoro smiles with victory and puts his knife in his mouth, licking the food free of it.

"Could I interest you in anything else… sirs?" The waiter trails off, looking Zoro up and down and fixing on the knife in Zoro's mouth.

"We wanna pay." Zoro answers with perfect clarity around his knife which seems to disturb the waiter who backs off and goes to get their bill.

"I don't know why I take you anywhere." Sanji groans, his face in his hands.

"I don't know why you took me here either." Zoro agrees with a shrug.

"Well… I…" Sanji trails off. He keeps starting and stopping.

"Spit it out whatever it is." Zoro tells him but Sanji flashes him an uneasy smile and leaps on the excuse of the bill arriving.

They aren't even out of the door of the fancy restaurant before Zoro is loosening his tie and undoing his jacket. Now that he doesn't have to go to a fancy meal he can at least get closer to how he wants to look rather than being stuffed into some fashion designer's idea of what looks good.

Sanji does a quick half run half walk to catch up with him as they head back to the ship together. Zoro can feel the weight of whatever Sanji hasn't said weighing heavily between them. Sanji's not been saying it all night, he had got him out here to have dinner and say whatever it is and he kept chickening out. Now as they're walking Zoro can feel Sanji doing the same. Well, Sanji's no coward usually and Zoro's sure as shit not going to help him if he acts like that.

"Zoro." Sanji says suddenly and Zoro realises that Sanji has stopped walking.

Zoro stops and turns to look at Sanji, is this it then? Is he going to hear whatever it is that Sanji has to say?

"I wanted to… to tell you something." Sanji says, looking deeply nervous and uncomfortable. He seems to be doing his best to look everywhere _but_ Zoro.

"Oh?" Zoro asks flatly. Sanji squirms and stuffs his hands in his pockets. Zoro watches him as he breathes in and out in a sharp huff, he reminds Zoro of Usopp trying to psych himself up to do something that he's afraid of.

"It's important." Sanji adds, clearly just buying time.

"Go on." Zoro tells him.

Sanji nods, presumably to himself and then looks Zoro right in the eyes with incredible intensity.

"I love you!" He shouts and stares unwavering at Zoro, though he looks a little like he wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

"You did all of this to tell me that?" Zoro questions, gesturing back up the road towards the fancy restaurant and then at them and their formal clothes.

"Well, yes. Obviously." Sanji adds that last part with a snort of his usual derision seeping back into his tone.

"Huh. Okay. You're kind of slow, you know?" He tells the blond and turns around and heads back to the ship.

"Oi! You can't just say that when someone tells you they love you! You have to say something back! And what the hell is that supposed to mean, I'm not slow!" Sanji argues, sprinting ahead of Zoro and throwing his arms out to bar his path, as if that would ever stop him.

"I mean that I worked that out for myself ages ago, apparently it just took you longer to realise it. You're kind of oblivious you know?" He says with a grin as he ducks under Sanji's arm and walks on.

"You mean you love me too?" Sanji asks hesitantly, presumably worried that Zoro might have meant that he had worked out how _Sanji_ felt ages ago instead of himself.

"Yeah, I do. Don't worry though, I can show you how it's done, since you're new at this and all." He retorts. Frankly he'd just assumed that Sanji loved him too and didn't need to say it, but hearing that he does feels good, but not quite as good as irritating Sanji this deeply feels.

"I hate you." Sanji mutters angrily as he catches up and walks shoulder to shoulder with Zoro. Though his words are angry Zoro can see the pinkness on his cheeks and the smile that keeps trying to creep onto his face before Sanji shoves it down.

"No you don't, you love me." Zoro replies gleeful at Sanji's sour expression.

"I suppose." Sanji mutters and fails to hide his smile.

Love, huh? He can work with that.


End file.
